Embryo Freezing and Legislative Debates: Unveiling Modern Fertility Challenges

Recent health news highlights the Southern Baptist Convention's condemnation of IVF, legislative challenges in Alabama regarding embryo freezing, the development of bird flu vaccines for cattle, Pfizer's gene therapy trials for muscle-wasting disorders, and various health concerns and developments globally, including bird flu and mpox cases.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Explainer-How freezing embryos plays a crucial role in IVF

The Southern Baptist Convention voted Wednesday to condemn the use of in vitro fertilization and commend congregants who use alternative fertility therapies or adopt frozen embryos. In February, the practice of freezing embryos was thrown into chaos in Alabama. The state supreme court ruled that such embryos should be considered children, exposing clinics to wrongful death claims in the event they are destroyed in the thawing process. The state later passed a law protecting IVF and allowing clinics to resume operations.

Two dozen companies working to find bird flu vaccine for cows, US agriculture secretary says

Twenty-four companies are working to develop an avian flu vaccine for cattle, as the virus spreads among U.S. dairy herds, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told Reuters on Wednesday. Bird flu has infected 90 dairy herds across 12 states since late March, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Three dairy farm workers also have been infected with the virus, two in Michigan and one in Texas.

Southern Baptist Convention condemns IVF procedures

The Southern Baptist Convention on Wednesday voted at its annual meeting to condemn the use of in vitro fertilization and commend its congregants who use alternative fertility therapies or adopt frozen embryos. Earlier at the meeting, a proposed amendment to the church's constitution that would have banned women as pastors fell just short of the two-thirds majority vote it needed to pass.

Pfizer's gene therapy for a muscle-wasting disorder misses main goal of late-stage study

Pfizer said on Wednesday its experimental gene therapy for a type of muscle-wasting disorder did not meet the main goal of a late-stage trial. The study's main goal was improvement in motor function among boys aged 4 to 7 years suffering from Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) who can walk.

WHO confirms human case of bird flu in India

The World Health Organization on Tuesday said a case of human infection with bird flu caused by the H9N2 virus was detected in a four-year-old child in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. The patient was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (ICU) of a local hospital due to persistent severe respiratory issues, high fever and abdominal cramps in February, and was discharged three months later after diagnosis and treatment, the WHO said.

Cara Therapeutics discontinues study on a neurological condition as drug fails

Cara Therapeutics said on Wednesday it will discontinue a mid-to-late stage study for a neurological condition that causes itching after its experimental drug did not demonstrate a meaningful clinical benefit compared to placebo.

WHO says risk to public health from avian influenza A (H5N1) remains low

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday that the risk to public health from the avian influenza A (H5N1) virus remained low despite its spread among dairy cattle in the United States. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said the virus had not shown signs of having acquired the ability to spread easily among humans, with 893 human cases reported since 2003.

Cancer victims ask court to block J&J talc bankruptcy

A group of cancer victims asked a federal judge to block Johnson & Johnson's proposed bankruptcy settlement of tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging the company's baby powder and other talc products caused their illnesses, according to a court filing. The plaintiffs filed a motion late on Tuesday in a New Jersey court seeking a temporary restraining order to stop a J&J subsidiary from filing bankruptcy in Texas or another jurisdiction outside New Jersey.

US health dept says UnitedHealth can notify patients of data breach

U.S. healthcare providers can ask UnitedHealth Group to notify people whose data was exposed during a hack on the company's Change Healthcare unit in February, according to an update on the health department's website. The news comes as a relief for U.S. hospitals and healthcare providers that had urged the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to shift the notification responsibility to UnitedHealth and its unit.

South Africa records first mpox death after five cases in past month

A 37-year-old man has died in South Africa from the viral infection mpox, becoming the first fatality in the country after five laboratory-confirmed cases were recorded over the past month, the health minister said on Wednesday. The man died in Tembisa Hospital on Monday, Health Minister Joe Phaahla told a news conference.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)